Latest News

Watch this space for up-to-date news of chess events from the Otago region.

Otago Chess Club 2011 Championship Winners – 14 December

Perpetual Handicap championship – 7 December

At the end of the 2011 year the highest improvers on club ratings were:
Standard
1st Quentin Johnson +50
2nd Tom Mottershead +43
3rd Leighton Nicholls +41

Rapid
1st Leighton Nicholls +79
2nd Elliot Munro +68
3rd Robert Wansink +55

Transfer tournament – 7 December

The final competitive event of the year was the transfer tournamnet. As often happens the most evenly matched team was triumphant: Juniors Leighton Nicholls and Ben Clayton teamed up to in the double-roundrobin convincingly on 6/8, ahead of Quentin Johnson and Keng-Yin Lai on 5, Charlie Ruffman and John Calder on 4, Tom Mottershead and John Armstrong on 3 and Chris Lydiate and Palin Wiseman on 2 points.

Richard Sutton Memorial – 30 November
Robert Wansink was the inaugural winner of the Richard Sutton Trophy, kindly donated by Kensie Suttton. He made short work of the field, notching up six straight wins to win by a 2 point margin. A three-way tie for second on 4 points featured Quentin Johnson, Terry Duffield and a fine result from Leighton Nicholls. Two welcome new members, Ben Clayton and Palin Wiseman made their debut in this event, Ben scoring a very creditable 2½.

View crosstable and rating performances

Otago CC Championship second leg – 2 November

Again with just two games yet to be played as in the first leg, the Senior, Intermediate and Junior champions for 2011 have been determined. In the A Grade Quentin Johnson and Robert Wansink lead on 3 points, though the latter has game in hand against defending champion John Sutherland who is next with Hamish Gold on 2½. Robert Mackway-Jones score a very solid 4 draws to reach 2 points, while Geoff Aimers could not repeat the success of his first leg and finished on 1 point. The combined total of 8/10 is enough to make Johnson the 2011 Senior champion regardless of the result between Wansink and Sutherland, who are both out of reach on 6/9.

The B grade was won by Brent Southgate on 4½/5 ahead of Terry Duffield on on 4, assuming he wins an adjourned game a rook up against Tom Mottershead. Mottershead and Leighton Nicholls are next on 2 points, the former with another game to complete against Bob Clarkson. David Reid finished on 1½, while Clarkson cannot improve his place with 0/4 to date. With the extra 2½ points added for competing in the A grade the Intermediate championship for 2011 was won by Mackway-Jones on a combined score of 8½ ahead of Southgate on 7 points.

The C grade saw a well-earned victory for new member (of Otago CC at least) John Calder on 4½/6, ahead of Charlie Ruffman second on 3 and Joel Smith third on 2½. Again the advantage of promotion determined the Junior Championship, with Tom Mottershead winning with a combined score of 9½ and two games in hand. Just behind him was fellow promotee, Leighton Nicholls on 9 points.

Update – 7 December:
Robert Wansink won his reamining match with Johns Sutherland to take second place overall on 7/10. Sutherland was third on 6/10, and Hamish Gold, Geoff Aimers and Robert Mackway-Jones tied for fourth on 3½.
Tom Mottershead resigned his game against Terry Duffield without resumption, and his game with Bob Clarkson was mutually abandoned.

A and B grade crosstables
A grade results and rating performances
B grade results and rating performances
C grade results and rating performances

Thematic blitz – 19 October

The chosen opening was the Danish Gambit accepted (1 e4 e5 2 d4 exd4 3 c3 dxc3), which helped reduce the natural advantage of the White pieces. The event was a round-robin, but Brent Southgate had to withdraw to play a championship game after one round. The time limit was 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per move. Final scores: 1 Bob Wansink 7/7; 2 Quentin Johnson 5½; 3 Elliot Munro 4½; 4 Charlie Ruffman 3½; 5 John Armstrong 3; 6 John Calder 2½; 7 Ben Clayton 1½; 8 Brent Southgate 0.

National Interschool teams – 24-25 September

Three Dunedin schools went to the NZ Interschool finals in Mt Maunganui on the weekend of 24-25 September: Otago Boys High School, Tahuna Normal Intermediate and Maori Hill.

OBHS managed the best result so far by an Otago/Southland team in the 11 year history of the national competition - 5^th out of 12 in the Secondary grade on 14½ points from a possible 28. Their teacher, Peter Odgers describes the result: “[W]e had a very successful weekend up in Mt Maunganui. All the usual top teams were there with Auckland Grammar being the hot favourites. We started off very well having a good 3-1 win over Tauranga Boys’ and then we drew with Christchurch Boys’ This meant we had to play some of the top teams which was a bit of a struggle and at the end of play on the Saturday night we were lying 9^th out of 12. Sunday morning dawned and after a good nights sleep the boys played much better and finished off with two good wins which pushed us up to 5^th place at the end. This was the best we have ever done at Nationals and we were close behind Christchurch Boys’ (4^th) who never had to play Auckland Grammar (we lost 0-4)! The individual results for each student were as follows:-

Board 1 = Elliot Munro, won 4 out of 7 no draws
Board 2 = Tom Mottershead, won 2 out of 7 no draws
Board 3 = Joseph Brown, won 5, drew 1 and lost 1
Board 4 = Joel Smith, won3, lost 4”

Tahuna Normal Intermediate's board 4, Grace Allen, had the misfortune to become very ill on arriving at the finals, and so the remaining team of Ben Clayton, Zac Mitchell and Naveen Sivasankar had to play without her, giving up a point every round. Nevertheless they achieved a creditable 11^th equal place from 14 on 11 points from a possible 28 (really 21).

The Maori Hill team of Ryan Lau, Max Lough, Ethan Lau and Nathan Xu had a good event, playing the toughest field of any team, playing all the top three teams. Unfortunately they ran out of steam on the second day and scored no points in the last three rounds, resulting in a lower placing of 12 out of 14 than they deserved, scoring 11 points from a possible 28. Their round by round results were:

Round 1 lost all 4 to Pigeon Mountain (East Auckland, top team in the end)
Round 2 won 2 (Max & Nathan) versus College St Normal (Manawatu)
Round 3 won all 4 versus Patea Area (Taranaki)
Round 4 won all 4 against Ngaio (Wellington)
Round 5 lost all 4 to Marshall Laing (Akl, came 3rd)
Round 6 lost all 4 to Milford (Akl, came 2nd)
Round 7 lost all 4 to Napier Central (Hawkes Bay)

Full results and photos of the event can be found at the New Zealand Chess website

Otago/Southland Junior Championship – 17 September

The Otago and Southland Junior (under 20) championship held at the Otago Chess Club last month drew a large field of 38 players from Invercargill to Christchurch.

After four of the six scheduled rounds, last year's winner Tim Rains (14, Christchurch Boys' HS) and runner-up Charlie Ruffman (15, Logan Park HS) lead on four points. Tim was the eventual winner of their fifth round clash, leading by a point ahead of a group of five players going into the final round. He was taken down at last by his brother Edward Rains (17, Christchurch Boys' HS) who joined him in first place. As both these Christchurch players were ineligible, the next two boards Chris Cho (14, John McGlashan) vs. Ruffman and Leighton Nicholls (13, home schooled) vs. Joel Smith (14, OBHS) would produce the champion. On both the younger player prevailed to leave Cho and Nicholls tied with the Rains brothers in first place on 5 points and joint 2011 Otago/Southland Junior Champions.

The prizewinners (school) and age were:
Open:
1st= Leighton Nicholls (home school) 13 (Junior champion 2011)
1st= Chris Cho (John Mcglashan) 14 (Junior champion 2011)
1st= Tim Rains (Chch BHS) 14
1st= Edward Rains (Chch BHS) 17

Under 1000 rating and under 13 grade (combined):
1st= Taine Box (Balmacewen) 12
1st= Naveen Siviasankar (Tahuna Normal Int) 12
3rd= Michael Zhang (James Hargest) 14
3rd= Heesung Park (Chch BHS) 15
3rd= Luke Nie (John McGlashan) 13
3rd= Sean Lau (Balmacewen) 12
3rd= Nathan Xu (Maori Hill) 7
3rd= Carlssen van Rooyen (Balmacewen) 12

Under 11 grade:
1st Nathan Xu (Maori Hill) 7
2nd Ethan Lau (Maori Hill) 9

1st Secondary school team: Chch BHS (Tim Rains, Edward Rains, Heesung Park)
1st Intermediate/Primary School team: Balmacewen (Taine Box, Sean Lau, Carlssen van Rooyen)

View crosstables, standings and team standings

Otago/Southland Primary and Intermediate Championship – 3 September

A strong turnout of 36 players filled the playing room at the Otago Chess Club, with players from schools mainly in Dunedin and Invercargill.

Favourites before the start were Sean Lau (12, Balmacewen Intermediate), Ben Clayton (12, Tahuna Normal Intermediate) and Logan Xu (12, John McGlashan). Sean Lau took a half point bye in round 2 to attend a piano competition but otherwise the favourites won all their games against the other players. The crunch came in round five when Ben Clayton up agreed a draw when material in fear of Logan Xu's attack. This left all three in lead. In the final round, Clayton defeated Lau to tie for first place on 5½/6 with Xu, who beat Taine Box (12, Balmacewen). Ethan Lau (9, Maori Hill) won through to finish third on 5, while his Maori Hill teammate Max Lough (9) and older brother Sean and shared fourth place on 4½ points.

1st= open: Ben Clayton (Tahuna Normal Int) & Logan Xu (John McGlashan) 5.5/6
3rd open: Ethan Lau (Maori Hill) 5.
4th= open Sean Lau (Balmacewen) & Max Lough (Maori Hill) 4.5.

1st under 11 grade: Ethan Lau (Maori Hill) 5.
2nd under 11 grade: Max Lough (Maori Hill) 4.5.
3rd under 11 grade: Cheng Yang (Charlie) Li (North East Valley) 3.5.

1st under 9 grade: Ethan Lau (Maori Hill) 5.
2nd under 9 grade: Corey Symon (Arthur St) 3.
3rd= under 9 grade: Luke Harvey (Windsor) & Michael Chisholm (Grants Braes) 2.5.

Best Girl: Katy Gloss (Kaikorai) 2.5.

Best Intermediate Team: Tahuna Normal Int (Ben Clayton, Zac Mitchell, Naveen Sivasankar) 13.5 points
Best Primary team: Maori Hill (Ethan Lau, Max Lough, Ryan Lau) 12.5 points.

View crosstables, standings and team standings

Otago Daily Times Article 5 September

Otago CC Rapid Championship – 30 August

Robert Wansink survived some hairy timescrambles to win all his games and take out the 2011 Rapid Championship on 18 points, ahead of John Sutherland 15½ and Quentin Johnson 14. (the scoring system involves a bonus factor of 50% per grade and a scaling factor for players who were unable to play at least six games through no fault of their own to allow scores to be compared). The B Grade was won by Thomas Koentges on 13½ ahead of Hamish Gold on 13. But the Intermediate Championship trophy goes to club President Terry Duffield on 12 points. Brent Southgate won the C grade on 10½, while D grade winner on 9 points, Elliot Munro, also picked up the Junior championship trophy.

View crosstable and rating performances

Otago CC Championship first leg – 20 July

With just two games yet to be played in the first leg, the winners of each grade are known. In the A Grade Quentin Johnson has finished first on 4 points with a game in had against Geoff Aimers. John Sutherland is next on 3½/5 followed by Robert Wansink on 3/5 and Aimers on 2½/4, who still has the chance to improve his standing. The B grade was won by Robert Mackway-Jones on 4/5 ahead of Terry Duffield on on 2½ and David Reid on 2 points. Brent Southgate and Bob Clarkson each have 1½ points with a game against each other in hand. Patrick Dawson had to withdraw from illness after playing one game – all his opponents were awared half a point. The C Grade was a convincing victory form Tom Mottershead, who raced to 5/5 then missed the final round. Leighton Nicholls finished second on 4½, followed by John Armstrong on 3 points.

Update: 7 September: Johnson beat Aimers to finish on 5/5. Southgate beat Clarkson to finsh 2^nd= in the B grade with Duffield.

A and B grade crosstables
A grade results and rating performances
B grade results and rating performances
C grade results and rating performances

Otago/Southland Secondary Interschool Teams Championship – 19 June

The late withdrawal of two Wakatipu HS teams resulted in an all-Dunedin Secondary school event this year, held at the Otago Boys' HS Library. The eight remaining teams competed in a round-robin, which by chance had top seed and defending champions Logan Park HS meeting the second seed OBHS A in the final round. This resulted in a tense competition as both teams large mowed down the other opposition, and OBHS A lead by just half a point goiing into the final clash of the leaders. The result was a 2-2 drawn match, enabling the OBHS A team to win overall on 25/28 aheah of Logan Park on 24½. Standout individual results were Logan Parks' top two boards and survivors of last year's winning team Patrick Dawson and Charlie Ruffman, bith on 7/7. While the OBHS A team's top scorers were Joe Brown and Joel Smith on boards 3 and 4, similarly with a maximum 7 points. Otago Boys' HS will represent the region iin the national finals at Mt Maunganui in September.

See standings and crosstable
See full individual scores (Excel)

Otago/Southland Prim-Int Interschool Teams Championship – 18 June

Entries of 9 Intermediate teams and 15 Primary teams to the competition held at Otago Boys' HS Shand building this year meant that the two grades were combined to prevent a double bye each round. With last year's intermediate champions, the Home School team, unable to defend their title this year, top seeds were last year's runner up, Tahuna Normal Intermediate A. This year Tahuna were finally able to shake off the 'bridesmaid' hoodoo (having been runner up many times) and win all their six matches to gain outright victory in the Intermediate section on 18½/24. An outstanding 6/6 by board 1 Ben Clayton and excellent performances from Zac Mitchell, Naveen Sivasankar and Grace Allen underpinned their victory. Second overall and winner of the Primary Championship were Enrich E, one of five teams fielded by Enrich and six from Invercargill. They finished on 17 points, with Caleb Duffy's 6 point on board 4 spearheading their excellent result. Third overall and second in the Intermediate section were John McGlashan A, whose top two boards Logan Xu (5) and Luke Nie (6) contributed the bulk of their 16½ points. Finally, Maori Hill Blue fished fourth overall and second in the Primary grade with a fine team performance of 16 points, board 2 Max Lough's 6/6 being the highest contribution. The teams to go on to represent the region at the national finals in Mt Maunganui in September are Tahuna Normal Intermediate and Maori Hill Primary, the Enrich team not being elligible under the national rules as a composite school team.

See standings and crosstable
See full individual scores (Excel)
See ODT coverage on Monday 20 June

Cleland Trophy – 8 June

Robert Wansink continued on his victorious path, deafeating turn, Robert Mackway-Jones, John Sutherland and Geoff Aimers to fiiish on maximum points and win the Cleland Trophy for 2011. Second on 5/6, having only lost to the winner, was Quentin Johnson, followed by Sutherland on 4 points. The tie for forth on 3½ featured Mackway-Jones, Thomas Koentges, and juniors David Moratti and Elliot Munro.

View crosstable and rating performances

Cleland Trophy – 18 May

Robert Wansink leads at the halfway mark with 3/3 after his opponent in round 3, John Sutherland unexpectedly did not show. These two can still play in later rounds but a default had to be awarded in the meantime. Chasing Robert close ly are new members this year, Robert Mackway-Jones and Thomas Koentges on 2½.

Blitz tournament – 27 April

Robert Wansink cantered to victory in this 11 player event. Final Scores: 1 R Wansink 10/10; 2 Q Johnson 8; 3 R Sanchez 6; 4-7 L Nicholls, T Koentges, C Ruffman & J Calder 5; 8-9 B Southgate & R Black 4; 10 J Armstrong 2; 11 B Clarkson 1.

Graham George Haase – 26 April

Life member and New Zealand Master, Graham Haase passed away on 26 April. He is remembered on this thread in Chess Chat

Some excerpts:

New Zealand Master & Life Member of the Otago Chess Club, Graham Haase passed away on 26 April. He caused a major upset in winning the NZ Championship in Wellington 1961/62, ahead of Sarapu, Phillips, Feneridis, Sutton & Court. This was the first time anyone had finished ahead of Sarapu in a NZ Championship. He didn't manage to repeat the result in a total of 13 championships, the next best being equal third in 1967/68. He also won the South Island championship in 1961 and was Otago champion 10 times.

Always an engaging character who displayed great sportsmanship at the board.

From former club president Tony Dowden:

Graham George Haase (1930-2011) was one of my favourite opponents in my formative years at the Otago Chess Club in Dunedin, in fact it was Graham who first introduced me to the Club in 1971. Despite living in the south of NZ with little serious opposition, Graham managed to maintain his strength at or near 2000 for several decades. We must have played at least 30 times. Although the results in our matches gradually tipped in my favour in the 1980s, he always played an honest game and, on principle, nearly always played the lines he felt were objectively best. I never met anyone else who gained as much satisfaction when sometimes coming off second best against my dubious experiments in the King's Gambit or Modern Benoni. As such, Graham was inordinately fond of saying that chess was the winner on any given occasion.

Graham hailed from Invercargill before studying at Otago University and commencing a long career as a high school mathematics teacher in Dunedin. At both Kings High School and Kaikorai Valley High school he was known for his interest in sport and chess - as well as for peculiarites such as carefully lining everything up on his teacher's desk with millimetre accuracy.

Graham was an interesting character with a quirky, if ocasionally unsettling, sense of humour. For example, he had a particular weakness for a sagging front door step at the Club which, in his later years, would cause general mirth when - arriving after match games had commenced and all was quiet in the clbrooms - he would emit a loud cry while stepping across the threshold. Graham also had an intense interest in certain hobbies and sports. Apart from chess these included hockey, squash, singing (esp. Gilbert & Sullivan - thanks Adamski), collecting chess memorabilia and anything to do with trams. He built a working model of a North Invercargill tramline - including two tramcars in traditional livery - in his study and it was genrally safe to assume he was a leading force behind various unsuccessful campaigns to return trams to Dunedin - presumably contributing to an early nickname of 'Tramcar' Haase.

In the last decade of his life Graham suffered from declining health, yet he still kept his links with chess for as long as possible. Graham was a trustee of Friends of Chess for many years. He was also a Vice-Patron and Councillor of the NZCF. And, as Otago Chess Club President from 2001-2005, I can personally vouch that he was quite possibly the most active Past-President the Club ever had. About 18 months ago Graham suffered a serious stroke from which he failed to substantially recover.

My sincere condolences to his wife Vivien and family. RIP

Swiss Rapid – 20 April

Robert Wansink convincingly took out the Swiss Rapid event with 8/8 – 1½ points clear of Quentin Johnson in second place on 6½. There was a further gap of 1½ points back to Hamish Gold in third place on 5, followed by the promising youngster Leighton Nicholls on 4½. Though the margins look convincing, the final score disguise the chaos that reigned on board and on the clock in many of the games. Elliot Munro and Charlie Ruffman both on 4, also played well and took loads of rating points off the adults.

View crosstable and rating performances

Allan Chang memorial – 23 March

John Sutherland continued on his winning way for the remaining 3 rounds to finish on a picket fence 6/6. Bob Wansink was next on 5 and Quentin Johnson third on 4. But the winner of the Allan Chang trophy was Tom Mottershead, for the biggest upset – his win over Terry Duffield from round 4. Other notable upsets were Leighton Nicholls over David Reid andJohn Armstrong over Robert Mackway-Jones.

View crosstable and rating performances

Allan Chang memorial – 2 March

This tournament commemorates former club member Allan Chang, who donated the trophy to the club many years ago, but it had ceased to be awarded for several years until now. The time limit of 10 minute hourglass is new to the club, and is proving quite interesting. Depending on the players the games can last anything from 10 minutes to 2 hours...

At the halfway stage the leaders are John Sutherland, who upset top seed Bob Wansink last round, and Quentin Johnson on 3/3.

2011 Otago chess club AGM – 9 February

The 2011 committee comprises:

President: Terry Duffield; Vice President: Geoff Aimers; Secretary: Bob Clarkson; Treasurer: John Sutherland; Director of Junior Play: Quentin Johnson; Past-President: Alistair Newbould; Committee members: Hamish Gold, Brent Southgate & Chris Lydiate.

Opening night – 2 February

The opening night event was the traditional match, but in the absence of the President and VP it the teams were: Treasurer vs Secretary, trialling the 10 minute hourglass time limit in preparation for the Alan Chang memorial tournament. The Secretary's team lead by Goeff Aimers triumphed over the Treasurer's team lead by John Sutherland 4-2.